Even IT professionals take vacation sometimes. Plan accordingly.
Newsflash I: people take time off, especially when their kids’ schools are closed for vacations, as was the case here in Massachusetts last week. Some of you (including yours truly) might think that vacations wouldn’t necessarily impact IT security, but after speaking with a few of the customers I support, I learned this wasn’t the case … and this got me to thinking about the forthcoming summer vacation season (and the aforementioned impact).
Newsflash II: security and support guys have lives outside of work; I know this can be hard to imagine, but please suspend your disbelief for now. We/they may even go on vacation once or twice a year. When your entire IT department is made up of only a few people, one person on vacation or even out for a day can cause a backlog of work. Additionally, if the vacationer is the only one with access to certain areas of an IT infrastructure, your company needs a plan in place for dealing with potential issues.
Last week, one of our clients needed to make a simple change to their security configuration but couldn’t. The reason: the person who manages the company’s security was out and no one else had the log-in credentials. Luckily, this wasn’t a change that needed to be made immediately and I was able to reset the password so they could get in. No harm, no foul. But what if it was time-sensitive and critical? The results could have been less than ideal – resulting in a complete system reset, meaning lost time, data and money.
In IT we talk about making sure we don’t have a single point of failure and having redundant backup systems. This can be difficult if the IT department consists of one person. But everyone likely has a boss – someone who might not be completely proficient on the task at hand, but someone who can serve as a backup – in this case with the log in credentials for all the infrastructure with which you deal.
That said, don’t wait for a planned vacation to start your knowledge backup. You never know when someone will go out sick or quit unexpectedly.
Of course, this advice applies to just about any position within a company. No one should be so critical that they are the only one who can complete a function for the company – from IT to custodial services to accounts payable. IT people know they should always have a backup for their IT systems – they of all people should know that there should be backups for people as well.
